First week in Guatemala

Arrival To Guatemala.


The white House.



Mayan Language word for the day...(Kaqchiquel)
Xsaqarik = Buenos Diaz. (good morning)




Current Mood: Gratefull, Excited, Inspired.

May 5th 2008.

Its been an exciting, and intense week. Arrival to the country was breathtaking. This country is very beautiful. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes one can only break its neck looking around at all of the trees, people, mountains and colors. We arrived to the airport at around 2:00pm that afternoon and shortly we were met by PC staff who loaded all 33 of us on a school bus and took us to the training PC headqurters in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas. The training site is very beautiful and it reminds me of my kindergarden school in Colombia. It has a beautiful Patio and is surrounded by rooms where trainings occur, and there are offices for adminstrative staff. The past week we have been learning many things from health to safety and we also stayed with a nearby host family for the first initial three days. I was fortunate to have been placed w/ the Castellanos with 2 other volunteers which lived not too far from the training site. They were very hospitable and cooked very good food.

I am now at a new site with a new host mother not too far from The Training location. I live in a big home, have my own room and shower. I will be staying here for the next 11 weeks for our training phase of PC and I will receive my site for the next two years later in late June.








The town I currently live in is literraly about 11 blocks long and and has a population of about over a thousand people.






May 6th

Today May sixth we had our first spanish classes at the municipality of my current Training site, San Bartome Milpas Altas. The other tarinees in my town Maggie, Carmen, Anna and I met our instructor Izabel at the park and we headed towards the Municipality. We were surprised and had the privilege of meeting the Mayor of San Bartolome Catalina Martinez who proposed a side project for us to work i the municipality at nights from 6-9 teaching some of the locals English and life skills. We were surprised and thankful and we kindly told her we would get back to her after we planned and spoke to our technical director and trainers.





May 7, 2008..
The name of my town for the next 11 weeks is called San Bartolome Milpas Altas. My I live with a single host mother so it is just me and her in her house. Training is intense as usual and very draining but it is very fun. The Trainees have to report to Training hadquarters every Monday for sessions regarding Technical, health, safety and safety. This past monday the we finally met out technical director Gonzalo who is a native of Guatemala. He is a medical doctor of indigenous descent who is new to the Peace Corps. He has been working about 2 years for the PC and has very fond knowledge of the rural country side of Guatemala. In total there are 17 of us in the Youth Development Group, and we have been lucky enough to have be the first group of Trainees who will b working the Youth Development project in Guatemala. Our Technical director Gonzalo told us we will all be sent to new sites in very Rural areas throughout the country to work in schools teaching life skills, planing for the future, HIV awareness ect....

Apparently in Guatemala, the social situation for children is very rough. There are many issues children have to deal with in this country that not many children in the U.S would ever have to go through. Besides the poverty many Guatemalan´s face such as living on one dollar a day, and the violence that plagues the streets, children in this country have to deal with little or no education, lack of motivation from parents, teachers, lack of opportunity, migration, gangs, prostitution, HIV, lack of self esteem. The median age of pregnancy in Guatemala is 18 while the medican age of marriage is 16. In addition, 50 percent of the population is indigenous and 50 percent is poor. There is also the problem of discrimination between the Ladino and indigenous population. Recently Inflation due to high gas costs has also hit Guatemala hard, in return increasing poverty and crime.

Part of the focus of our Youth Development group is to prepare the youth for their adult roles in the area of family, work, and life and to develop their minds in order to get them to think about themselves and their future. Also to motivate and inspire them to continue to pursue an education, whcih not many children do due to their responsibilities of work and family.

"To change others we may have to change ourselves first".

Today we were taken to meet a current volunteer Terry who has been in Guatemala for 2 years working the Pilot Youth Development program. We were first taken to a city called Dueñas where we were able to meet with 2 classes of 40 plus students. Terry introduced us to the students and did some ice breakers with them. After this we had lunch in Ciudad Vieja and then we headed to one of the other schools Terry teaches at which was one of the more Rural schools. This school was in a small village called Aldea Rejon which was located on the outskirts of the mountains. This town was almost all indigenous and the local people spoke Kaqchiquel. The school was really small and it held about 50 students, all within the ages of 8-12. Terry did some ice breakers with them and had us participate as well. we also learned some words in Kaqchiquel from the school director and one of the children made a presentation about one of the Mayan calendars.






"Imagination is more important than knowlwdge" -Albert Einstein.